General Discussion

but came to a compromise for the sake of unity in an election year.



Despite Jay-Z and Josh Shapiro’s support, Pa. didn’t approve school vouchers this year. Here’s why.

Instead, legislative leaders reached a budget deal that includes expanding existing tax credit programs to help families send their children to private schools.

Published July 22, 2024

https://www.inquirer.com/news/pennsylvania/school-voucher-pa-budget-josh-shapiro-20240722.html

https://archive.ph/TEVaZ

Pennsylvania lawmakers and advocates were prepared for a tough budget fight over school vouchers this year. But it fizzled out. Despite support for vouchers from Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, GOP leaders, and even Jay-Z, a proposed $100 million voucher program was not a major sticking point in budget negotiations. Instead, legislative leaders reached a budget deal that includes expanding existing tax credit programs to help families send their children to private schools. But the contentious debate over a voucher program to send students in low-performing schools to private school could return next year. Here’s a look at some of the reasons why vouchers didn’t get approved, and what could come next.

Shapiro and Democrats wanted to avoid a messy interparty spat during an election year

We got a preview into Shapiro’s unlikeliness to take up the voucher issue last year following the state Democratic Party’s winter meeting, where national DNC leaders requested they set the issue aside during a critical election year. Unlike Shapiro, who has sought to make school choice an area where he can reach across the aisle, many Democrats oppose vouchers. Teachers unions, which contribute to Democratic campaigns, lobby strongly against vouchers and argue that they take money away from struggling public schools. But the issue can be more complicated for officials in Philadelphia, where some lawmakers support school choice, in part because staggering achievement gaps exist between public school students in the city vs. surrounding counties. In addition, unity within the Democratic Party is more important than ever, as the party views Pennsylvania as a must-win battleground state in the presidential election.

Shapiro still called for a voucher program to be part of the state’s new budget as part of his budget address in February. And House Democrats and Shapiro had been willing to compromise and create a new tax credit program, which was rejected by the Senate GOP leaders during budget talks. Senate Majority Leader Joe Pittman (R., Indiana) said the tax credit pitch would have made it too hard for private schools to participate. And Shapiro was unwilling to use his political capital or “bully pulpit” to get the issue into a final budget deal, Pittman said. “Unlike last year, we saw no evidence that the governor was full-throatedly behind actually making it happen,” Pittman added. And the political calculation was clear to Pittman, too: “It would be very difficult to have an intense campaign occur in 2024 and have the leader of the Democratic Party sign a voucher bill and explain that to the base of the Democratic Party,” he added. Shapiro’s office declined to comment.

Progressive groups and labor mobilized in advance of budget season

Progressive groups and labor unions were caught by surprise last year, when a school voucher program appeared in a final budget deal between Shapiro and the Senate GOP. They didn’t let that happen again. Those groups coordinated their anti-voucher efforts. Once rumors circulated that vouchers were a likely possibility in the final budget deal, Rachel Weisberg, a political strategist for the Working Families Party, said she mobilized them to come together with one voice to block it. “Imagine it’s Election Day in a month, and right now, you’re losing,” Weisberg recalled someone telling her in May, before budget talks began in earnest. “What do you have to do to win?” The Working Families Party, the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, and more than a dozen other groups worked on email campaigns and lobbied at the state Capitol. Another union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 32BJ, knocked on doors around Philadelphia. With support from Councilmember Kendra Brooks, the group got Philadelphia City Council to approve a resolution denouncing vouchers. “We can’t divert any of our hard-earned public tax dollars to private programs,” House Speaker Joanna McClinton (D., Philadelphia) said on the Capitol steps at a June anti-voucher rally.

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